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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23077303">Entrant</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyoftheShield/pseuds/LadyoftheShield'>LadyoftheShield</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Crime Alley's Finest [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman: Streets of Gotham (Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics), Detective Comics (Comics)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Batfam Week 2020, Body Horror, Bonding, Colin and Jason aren't quite at the family unit stage yet, Decay, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Gore, Harm to Children, Injury, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Protective Colin Wilkes, Protective Jason Todd, Schizophrenia, Schizophrenic Colin Wilkes, but they're pretty fuckin close, exposed bone, i guess?</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 00:27:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>799</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23077303</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyoftheShield/pseuds/LadyoftheShield</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason and Colin have a lot in common. A need to protect each other is one thing. Failure to let themselves be protected is another. </p><p>BatFamily Week 2020 Week One - Overprotectiveness</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jason Todd &amp; Colin Wilkes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Crime Alley's Finest [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1753129</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>74</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Batcest-B-Gone, Tales from the Cave</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Entrant</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Colin goes by Wreckage here, not Abuse. His powers have also been changed a bit</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“You don’t have to carry me, Colin groused.  “I’m not a baby.” Even as he spoke, his limbs twitched, almost wobbled back into formless goop. Colin’s teeth gritted together as he tried to pull himself fully back to his human form. The residual buzzing from the electricity hadn’t gone away. His reactions would be delayed until the polarization wore off.  Most of his headache had faded, leaving him with a faint throbbing in his left temple.</p><p>“You’re not walking worth shit for another hour at least,” Jason said, “Not with your nervous system fucked like that. Besides, it’s faster this way.”</p><p>The smell of raw meat with just an undertone of decay filled his nostrils. Colin scrunched his face at the flash of white bone showing through Jason’s shredded shoulder.  “Did you have to ram him like that?” Colin asked, turning his head away from the thick black clot trailing down Jason’s back. “You’re the one always saying to fight smart, not hard.”</p><p>“It wasn’t the most elegant thing I’ve ever done,” Jason said, “But it got the job done.”</p><p>“You didn’t have to,” Colin said, his grip around Jason’s good shoulder tightening despite the trembling, jelly-like weakness of his limbs. “I would have been ok.”</p><p>“Wreckage is a hell of a tank,” Jason said, “he’s one of the strongest people I know. You are one of the strongest people I know, Colin. But you’re still a kid. I hear you making that face at me, I’m not done-”</p><p>“You’re not invincible either, Jason.” </p><p>“I’m not done,” Jason repeated. “You’re fearless, collected under pressure, and sharp. You’re as good as any Robin. And that’s why I worry. Even with all of that going for you, sometimes it doesn’t mean shit. You can do everything right and still have everything blow up in your face. Literally.” His head tilted back, gently whacking the tip of Colin’s nose. “Besides. You weren’t Wreckage then, right? The electricity should have forced you back to your human form.”</p><p>“-I don’t remember. I don’t think- partly?”</p><p>"Wreckage can take a hit. You can't."</p><p>The smell of decay from Jason’s shoulder was overpowering now. The remnants of his headache flared up, and he pressed his face into Jason’s good shoulder. Was it the filters in the hood? Or could Jason really not smell the rot in his skin, feel the flies buzzing around the bloody shoulder? </p><p>It was easy to forget, sometimes, that Jason was barely an adult himself, that unlike Colin he was mostly human. In the heat of battle especially, Jason definitely didn’t seem it. Injuries that would have downed other men didn’t faze him. He’d beaten Bane in a one on one fight without ending up in a full body cast. It was no wonder why most people thought twice about crossing the Red Hood- even without a hundred and twenty pounds of human heads hanging over theirs.</p><p>But most people didn’t live with the aftermath, when they limped home to gauze and careful sutures. Jason healed quickly, but injuries were injuries, and Jason collected them like bottlecaps. His healing factor didn't work without a lot of rest and food. And Colin hadn’t forgotten the time he hadn't been sure Jason would make it through the night- the time he was little more than a zombie for three days while his body knit his bones and organs back into something functional. 

Maybe Jason didn’t mind it when he got hurt. But Colin did.</p><p> “What was I supposed to do if he got you?” Colin asked, the knot in his voice tightening on itself no matter how he crushed it down. “I’m not made of glass. I heal fast, too. I don’t want you to take hits you don’t have to take.” </p><p>The silence of the sewers echoed around them. Colin waited, surprised Jason was actually considering his words.</p><p>“I’ll be more careful about getting myself shredded into hamburger,” Jason said at last, “and the other shit that comes with our line of work. But you can’t ask me not to look out for you, kid. Someone has to watch your back. I know you have mine.”</p><p>“You know I do,” Colin said. It wasn’t what he wanted. Jason wouldn't be Jason if it were. But once he really proved himself, he could take some of the load off Jason. He could protect him, instead of having to be the one who was always being protected.</p><p>It was warm in the sewers, for once. Colin’s head tilted forward.</p><p>“Good,” Jason’s voice said, far away. The meaning raced by him, and Colin found he was too tired to chase it. “Get some sleep, kid. You earned it.”</p><p>He wasn’t sleepy, he thought as the sewers melted to an inky darkness around him. He was safe.</p>
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